Senate Majority Leader Reid is bringing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to a vote this week … but before it can reach a straight up-or-down vote on the Senate floor, it needs to pass a few procedural hurdles including a vote tonight requiring 60 “yes” votes just to start debate.

Last week we got some great news, as Senators Bill Nelson of Florida, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced that they will support ENDA. That makes 100% of Senate Democrats, including newly sworn-in Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey who we also expect to vote “yes.”

We also have a few Republicans on board. Senators Mark Kirk (Illinois) and Susan Collins (Maine) are both cosponsors of the bill. Additionally, Senators Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted to approve the bill in committee.

And just this morning, we got breaking news that Senator Dean Heller (R-Nevada) will also support ENDA.

That brings us up to 60 suspected “yes” votes -- we need to make sure every one of those votes comes through. And as important as it is to have their support, we need them to actually show up for the votes since this is right on the cusp. Every vote counts tremendously!

It’s way too close for us to take any chances.

Senators who have indicated that they’ll stand with us need to hear from you to keep up the support and continue fighting. And the rest of them should be told to stand with common sense, not the anti-gay extremists who are using lies and distortions to try to stop ENDA.